Back in 2010, I stayed at a hotel in Berlin that had a Peltier type 'fridge'. It didn't do squat to make anything cold. Then again, the Germans don't do cold anyway, so I guess nobody over there cares.

Back in 2010, I stayed at a hotel in Berlin that had a Peltier type 'fridge'. It didn't do squat to make anything cold. Then again, the Germans don't do cold anyway, so I guess nobody over there cares.

Ohhh, so the Peltier module doesn't even use a compressor, no wonder it's a hunk of crap. I had forgotten to check on it until now. Just another kind of heat pump that's all the rage these days, I've heard of many dumping their air conditioners in favor of them. I even heard tell of one that had a breakdown and couldn't be repaired right away because the parts had to come in from china. And people are spending a couple of kilobucks at least on the things, ridiculous. The wastefulness of Western society really ruffles my feathers.

As far as I know warm beer is popular among Germans, I don't know about anything else though.

Back in 2010, I stayed at a hotel in Berlin that had a Peltier type 'fridge'. It didn't do squat to make anything cold. Then again, the Germans don't do cold anyway, so I guess nobody over there cares.

It takes at least 24 hours to come to the temperature setting.
The manufactures recommend that the items placed in the fridge are cold to begin with, otherwise it's a long wait!

Back in 2010, I stayed at a hotel in Berlin that had a Peltier type 'fridge'. It didn't do squat to make anything cold. Then again, the Germans don't do cold anyway, so I guess nobody over there cares.

I'm a small part German, but I like my beer and soft drinks cold! I have my Sanyo compact fridge in my workshop, set a little colder than normal.
The small German fridges were always the "absorption" type, using ammonia as the refrigerant. They even used those in the bar-hi-fi combinations.
It's a well-known fact that ammonia makes the best refrigerant but a little dangerous when it springs a leak.

I'm a small part German, but I like my beer and soft drinks cold! I have my Sanyo compact fridge in my workshop, set a little colder than normal.
The small German fridges were always the "absorption" type, using ammonia as the refrigerant. They even used those in the bar-hi-fi combinations.
It's a well-known fact that ammonia makes the best refrigerant but a little dangerous when it springs a leak.

There were refrigerated bar/HiFi consoles in the 50s or 60s? I've never heard of that, and I own a Blauplunkt HiFi bar.

I'd take a peltier "fridge" in a hotel room over a noisy compressor which stops me from sleeping.

Besides, if you really want your beer cold fast in a hotel, just raid the ice machine, fill up the bathroom sink with ice, and then top it up with cold water. Throw the beer in there, and it will be ice cold within 20 minutes. That's one of my travel "hacks" from 20 years of business trips, works every time. On the other hand, if you acquire a taste for warm beer, then more for you!

I'd take a peltier "fridge" in a hotel room over a noisy compressor which stops me from sleeping.

Besides, if you really want your beer cold fast in a hotel, just raid the ice machine, fill up the bathroom sink with ice, and then top it up with cold water. Throw the beer in there, and it will be ice cold within 20 minutes. That's one of my travel "hacks" from 20 years of business trips, works every time. On the other hand, if you acquire a taste for warm beer, then more for you!

Warm beer hits you a lot faster!
The Peltier fridge has a cooling fan or two on the back, depending on the size.
The small compressor in the mini-fridges are very quiet.

Warm beer hits you a lot faster!
The Peltier fridge has a cooling fan or two on the back, depending on the size.
The small compressor in the mini-fridges are very quiet.

Cooling fan is a continuous noise, almost like white noise after a while.

Compressor comes on, then goes off, then comes on, then goes off - that's what wakes me up. I can tell you 100% they aren't all very quiet, I've unplugged them in many hotel rooms at 2am, because I couldn't sleep.

Cooling fan is a continuous noise, almost like white noise after a while.

Compressor comes on, then goes off, then comes on, then goes off - that's what wakes me up. I can tell you 100% they aren't all very quiet, I've unplugged them in many hotel rooms at 2am, because I couldn't sleep.

+1. A long running habit in my family has been to take a fan (usually one in an room air filter or humidifier) and run it all night to drown out the hotel air-conditioning unit (some are ungodly loud), idiots making noise in Hall/adjoining rooms, and stuff outside the building... constant/white noise and near total silence I sleep great through, but anything intermittent wakes me right up... unless I'm in a really deep part of my sleep cycle (then lightning could strike 10 ft away and I wouldn't notice).

To each their own. I sleep about six feet from the fridge, and well within earshot of the freezer, doesn't bother me at all. My A/C unit is louder but is rarely ran at night, and summer here is so nasty that the compressor runs almost constantly even at full power so its on/off cycles are a moot point for me anyway.

On a side note, I absolutely HATE the sound of the dishwasher. It's a cheap, modern Whirlpool that I believe is known for being particularly noisy. I can't replace it with anything of quality because it's provided by the building owners. I can even hear one going in a nearby unit occasionally.

To each their own. I sleep about six feet from the fridge, and well within earshot of the freezer, doesn't bother me at all. My A/C unit is louder but is rarely ran at night, and summer here is so nasty that the compressor runs almost constantly even at full power so its on/off cycles are a moot point for me anyway.

On a side note, I absolutely HATE the sound of the dishwasher. It's a cheap, modern Whirlpool that I believe is known for being particularly noisy. I can't replace it with anything of quality because it's provided by the building owners. I can even hear one going in a nearby unit occasionally.

Building owners usually buy the lowest priced appliances they can. Most people use the dishwasher either during the day or in the evening. They feel that the tenant will abuse it anyway and most are not worth repairing, out of warrantee.

Building owners usually buy the lowest priced appliances they can. Most people use the dishwasher either during the day or in the evening. They feel that the tenant will abuse it anyway and most are not worth repairing, out of warrantee.

They do bring in an appliance repair guy on occasion, and the maintenance guy fixes simple appliance problems i.e. our auto-destructing stove element, but when the fridge in our old unit crapped out it was simply replaced.

Hotel fridges tend to be at least far enough away. The worst though, was a new Holiday Inn in Ohio I once stayed at. Ok, besides being in Ohio, the water was so stupidly soft that I took like 15 minutes to rise my hair off. And the heating/cooling unit in the room was this Amana heat pump thing that would start, run 5 minutes, shut off, then start 5 minutes later. Blower and everything. No setting to at least keep the blower on all the time (Go Energy Star!).

Didn't sleep at all that night.

For noise, nothing beats a new Bosch dishwasher - the one my parents have is so quiet, when i visit them, I can never tell when it's on or not. More than once, it's done the end of cycle beep, and *that's* when I realize it was running...

I'd take a peltier "fridge" in a hotel room over a noisy compressor which stops me from sleeping.

If you like silent fridges, Keep you eye open for anything made by "mini-bar AG."
I found one at a junk store for $20, They use the ancient system of "Adsorption" refrigeration. It is a closed system of ammonia, water and hydrogen. that cools without a motor. It is the same type as the old Servel gas fridges except instead of using heat from burning gas it uses a electrical heating element. It's maximum power consumption is 60w. It cools better than a Peltier yet it is even quieter.